Alive
by The Final Conduit
Summary: Nothing ever seemed to go right when it came to Jaune's life. Between the massive work loads of school and being the last ranked fighter in Beacon, he never had much to enjoy beside his friends. But it seemed that even they could unwittingly contribute to the worst family reunion he'd ever gone to. And it all started with an invitation for Pyrrha to join.
1. Preparation

He sat alone with his scroll open, the room he was in having no light.

Despite the lack of lighting, he sat next to a window, the clouded but bright sky enough to compensate for this.

Seemingly indistinguishable flakes of white showered onto the window, the heat from the inside of the room the boy sat in enough to make the silvery specks melt upon contact.

The blonde could always be found with an either troubled or eased expression on his face.

This situation in particular was of no exception.

His expression for that moment being relative ease, he looked into the camera of his scroll with a light hearted smile gracing his face.

"It's good to hear from you Jaune." A woman who looked to be older than him said, her hair a slightly paler blonde than his.

"Same to you Sedeqe." Jaune said, having started the video chat moments ago, speaking the woman's name so that her name rhymed with the word "seek".

It had become something of a ritual for Jaune to talk to Sedeqe whenever he had free time, namely when classes finished at Beacon, or if classes ever had a large gap of time between them.

He hadn't really talked that much with his eldest sister, or any of his family for that matter, when he first reached Beacon, the novelty of being away from them taking some time to fully enjoy, what with the motion sickness he had just getting there, and at that, to fade away before he inevitably started to miss everyone.

Sedeqe wasn't the only person he kept in contact with, she was simply the closest to him, therefore making her easier to contact, the rest of his immediate family being spread throughout different parts of the world.

They quickly fell into a conversation, it being a mixture of regular things given for Jaune's current living conditions, and other things that Jaune disliked bringing up but Sedeqe seemed to enjoy.

The latter of which was something he half expected her to speak of.

"How's that girl you like been?"

"She's been fine." Jaune said, the smile he put on feeling a bit more forced to him.

He'd known well before he ever told her that telling Sedeqe of the more romantic aspects of his life would be the equivalent of just adding fuel to the ever annoying flames that would be sparked by her teasing him about it.

She could see right through the smile however.

"Things aren't going very well, huh?"

Knowing that he couldn't hide things very well, especially so from Sedeqe of all people, he relented.

"No, not really." He admitted.

Since he didn't have much spare time on his hands since the preparations for the Vytal festival started, with the few days he did have off being taken up with either training with Pyrrha, him resting, or him working on the loads of homework he'd been assigned for the better part of the day, he didn't really have many chances to talk to her.

The whole situation with Weiss didn't seem very important in the grand scheme of things, he told himself.

Despite this fact, knowing she would want to know, Jaune told her about how the girl he liked liked someone else, a boy their age named Neptune, who was something of a womanizer, and how Sedeqe's advice to "be romantic" when Jaune himself asked Weiss to the dance had failed.

When he spoke of her advice, Sedeqe looked surprised, "What did she do?"

"Slammed the door on my face." Jaune's face went sour.

Sedeqe laughed at his misery.

Despite it being mean, Jaune didn't think he'd have it any other way.

Siblings were there to annoy and support each other after all.

She quickly recovered a stern expression, trying to sound concerned, it falling for hints of laughter still in her voice, "I"m... sorry that happened to you..."

Jaune laughed at her poor attempt at hiding her own laughter.

"It's fine. I'd rather Weiss be happy. And I can tell, she'll be happier with Neptune."

"Oh well." Sedeqe shrugged on her side of things, as she was holding her respective scroll with a stand, "At least now you'll be able to let go and move onto other girls."

"Yeah."

"But most of your friends are girls anyway, right? You could find someone else."

"But I'm not that close to the others." He switched the hand holding his scroll, his left, with his right after feeling his arm complain about the amount of work it took in making blood flow through his arm, resting his head on his now free palm, looking at Sedeqe all the while.

"It'd be best if you didn't get too close. After all, I'm betting it might suck for people to assume things about your sexuality. Especially after that whole dress thing."

"I was keeping a promise!"

"Sometimes you can't always keep your promises." Sedeqe responded, crossing her arms at him.

"You have to least try." Jaune reasoned.

"Of course. Now, back onto the topic at hand..." She gained a very thoughtful look on her face.

"It really doesn't matter Sedeqe. Not having a girlfriend might actually be good for me. I won't get distracted as easily." Jaune spoke.

While in truth he really hadn't been distracted by girls, he had given that excuse for why his grades in certain classes were lower than before.

The situation was the same as that, he thought.

He had been trying for months now to get a girlfriend.

But, like every other attempt in the past, this one had failed.

In all honesty, he was pretty tired of it all.

Tired of taking advice, given to him either from his father or his sisters, for dating that, at least for him, had never once worked.

Tired of all the heartbreak, of the endless cycle that was his confidence, it being a small facade, it growing into something genuine, only for it to be torn to shreds before long by a few words of the same person he put the facade up for.

Tired of chasing after a goal that may not even be as worth it as he'd originally hoped...

He was tired... oh so tired...

"Let's not give up yet. Come on, isn't there anyone else you're really close to?"

Jaune mentally gave a worn sigh, thinking on her words, three girls in particular coming to mind.

"There are a few." He admitted to her.

"Alright, who else are you close to then?"

The first girl to pop in his mind was Pyrrha, his mentor and quite possibly his closest friend, even if they didn't know much about each other.

This wasn't to say that they weren't that close. It just meant that besides the situation with his family, siblings and ancestry both, as well as his forging of his transcripts for Beacon, Jaune had never really told Pyrrha anything that meaningful about himself.

The same could be said for everyone in the small group of eight friends Jaune was a part of, ten if you counted Neptune and his teammate, Sun Wukong.

"There's a girl named Pyrrha that's my partner..." He had looked down in his thoughts now, away from the screen.

"Alright, what's she like?" Sedeqe pressed her elbow into the arm-rest of the chair she was sitting on, leaning her head's weight on her right fist, her jaw and cheek bones resting the most on it.

"She's a good friend. She's strong and reliable. Pretty good at school, so good at fighting that she's won a lot of tournaments..." He listed off all the good traits he could find in Pyrrha, having a lot of trouble to his own surprise.

"Sounds like the perfect influence for you." Sedeqe smiled against her fist, "Who else?"

"There's a girl named Nora on my team. She's... a bit out of the ordinary to say the least. She acts so hyperactive sometimes, but eventually she ends up calming down after a while."

"A bit on the wild side, eh?"

"Usually when she's fighting or thinking about fighting." Jaune spoke honestly.

Nora was going to be the second girl that would come to mind regardless of his relationship with others.

She was his teammate after all.

"Anyone else?"

"Just one more. Her name is Ruby."

"What's she like?"

"She's..." Many words came to Jaune's mind, yet he summed them all up in one, "... pretty care-free. Innocent."

Or maybe two.

"That's the only thing you can get from her personality?"

"I don't really know her that well, but those three are the only girls I can safely say that I'm close to."

Now that he thought about it, Jaune didn't know much of anything about Ruby herself.

She was pretty mature for her age, he could say that much, but besides that, he really couldn't describe her.

He simply wasn't her friend to that extent.

"Ruby's like the little sister that I never had." He tried to sum up.

Sedeqe nodded in understanding.

Being the youngest of eight siblings with seven sisters would often make a person want to know what a younger sibling was like.

Well, Sedeqe thought, hopefully Jaune finally knew what it was like to have a younger troublemaker in his midst.

She, like all other eldest children, knew very well of the syndrome that would manifest itself within said children whenever a younger sibling came.

The "these-are-the-rules-and-you-must-follow-them" syndrome, if she had to describe it.

"Would you say that any of them are pretty?"

Jaune, speaking almost as if by reflex after seeing that knowing and expectant smirk come across his older sister's face, said, "No, not really..."

"Oh?" Sedeqe still held that look on her face, "Would you be fine with me going up to Beacon and telling them you said that?"

"No." Jaune sighed in defeat, "Yeah, they're all very pretty."

Seeing as he had already admitted it, he decided to tell the whole truth, "They're all beautiful, at least in their own different ways."

"Who would you say is the most beautiful of the group?"

Falling under her smirk again, Jaune didn't even attempt to deny anything.

She knew him inside and out.

Trying to lie and say that he didn't like anyone would certainly make things much worse than they already were.

After giving it a moment's thought, Jaune settled on an answer, "I'd say Pyrrha."

"Really? I'm curious then. Do you see her as just your partner?"

"No. She's my best friend."

"Then I guess I know what I'm going to do this year around."

"What's that?" Jaune asked in curiosity.

"I'll be visiting over there. I would like to meet your lady friends."

"Please stop calling them that." Jaune sighed, saying this for what felt to be another time in a countless number.

"But it's true though."

"No it's not. You make it sound like I'm trying to date everyone."

"Don't worry, it'll be fine. I'll bring Shem along with me. Then we'll get you and Pyrrha and go on back home for the holidays."

"You're not giving me a choice in the matter are you?" Jaune said, his voice knowing like her expression had been, only instead of smugness, there was a tired sound, mixed in with a sense of foreboding that he had no trouble whatsoever putting his faith in.

"See you in a week." Sedeqe said, ending the call.

Jaune sighed.

"Well this is going to suck." He said to himself, leaning the back of his head against the window.

Checking the time again, Jaune sighed, getting himself up with a start.

His team would probably be waking up soon.

* * *

It was the memory of that conversation that led to Jaune's troubled expression at the breakfast table a few hours later.

Donning his full school uniform, Jaune absentmindedly listened to the conversations that his friends gave.

The first to notice his unusually long silence had actually been Nora, who was busy trying to balance a fork on the tip of her finger.

"Hey Jaune, what's wrong?" She asked, the fork falling off of her finger.

She made a grab at it, but it still fell on the table despite her efforts.

Sighing, she gave up, turning to Jaune in curiosity.

Jaune forced a smile on his face, waving a hand as though he was without a care, "Don't worry. It's nothing to worry about."

Pyrrha looked at him then, "Whenever you say that, it always ends up being something to worry about."

"It's kind of a stupid thing to worry about. You guys would probably laugh at me if I told you." Jaune tried to end the subject then.

He could continue to try formulating a plan to avoid his sister and his friends from ever meeting with a clear mind if he didn't tell them.

Sadly, curiosity was truly a killer.

"You can tell us Jaune," Ruby added, "We won't laugh, we swear."

At this point the three girls had made him the center of the limelight, the seven members of their group looking at Jaune in curiosity, one by one.

Seeing the many eyes looking at him expectantly, Jaune sighed, "Can't we drop this? I really don't want to talk about it."

"Come on Jaune, what's the worst that can happen if you tell us?" Yang gave him her signature smirk, holding her head on her palm.

The worst actually flashed briefly in Jaune's mind for a split second.

The image of all of his family gathered in a church, the sounds of the organist playing the instrument that gave him his name, Jaune standing at the end of the long aisle of the chapel, wearing a tuxedo that had a formality worthy of the rare occasion, the doors of the building opening, revealing a girl in a bright white dress as she walked up the aisle, it littered with flower petals that were put carelessly onto the floor.

A clergyman of some type would stand next to him, the woman veiled in white closing the gap between herself and Jaune steadily...

"Stuff…" Jaune said vaguely.

"Stuff of what variety?" Weiss spoke up then.

"Well…"

"'Well'…?"

He sighed softly, part of him giving in.

Any plan he'd make would most likely end up failing regardless of what he tried to do.

Against Sedeqe's semblance, finding someone would be too easy even if they hid…

His eye found a bird that sat on the windowsill, it fine despite the snow.

A Northern Terrace…

He looked at Pyrrha then, and with the knowledge that his battle was already lost, his expression became tired once again.

Then he finally asked the question, "Would you mind going out with me a week from now?"

Of course they'd all take it the wrong way, Jaune thought to himself as he reflected minutes later.

Him having worded the request like that, it was no wonder they seemed to react in the way they did.

He was such a weirdo sometimes...

Seeing the surprised face of Pyrrha, who's face was comparable to the surface of a tomato in how red it became in the next few seconds, come to his mind's eye as he continued to sit at the table, arms crossed, expression nothing but serious, as she stared at him, Jaune admittedly could never stop laughing at how ridiculous the small scene that followed was.

Then next moment, she was scooped up in Yang's arms, the golden haired beauty wrapping her arms around the red head's stomach, picking her up and sprinting out of the door, quickly followed suit by Ruby, Yang kicking the doors open as the three ran out, into the snow fall.

The remaining five sat in utter silence for a few moments, the realization of what happened in that short span of time still taking time to register in Jaune's brain.

"So..." Ren broke through the silence, "You really did end up asking her out on a date after all..."

"Hm?" Jaune, who had recovered more quickly, was sipping on a straw for his milk, having already resigned himself to try getting an answer later, and at his friend's comment, looked at him in confusion.

"I can't believe you actually did it..." Weiss had a look of surprise, but also that of disappointment.

"What's wrong?" He asked her.

"You just made me lose a bet..."

Bet?

Thinking on the last word, Jaune read between the lines, and realizing what they meant, could only speak the first sentence that came to his mind.

"You guys were betting that I'd ask Pyrrha out on a date?" He looked in an accusatory manner to all of his friends.

"Nora started it." Weiss tried to shift the blame, arms crossed.

"Nora?!" A look of betrayal flitted across his eyes, his gaze turning to the orange haired girl.

"Yup!" Nora pointed a thumb atherself, "I'M the evil mastermind here!"

"Why are you being a mastermind to begin with?!"

"So that the romantic tension between you two can be gone!"

"What romantic tension?!"

"Jaune." Everyone looked in curiosity when they realized Ruby had returned, her voice so calm that it was somewhat scary, "Pyrrha would like to see you."

"What did you guys do to her?" Jaune asked, his knowledge of the bet making him suspicious of everyone around him.

"That is currently classified information."

He sighed, getting up, part of him wanting to tell them that he didn't even ask that with the intention to take her out on a date but Jaune ultimately deciding against it.

As he stopped himself, he started to realize that this would at least give him an opportunity to be able to confide in Pyrrha.

Maybe he'd even be able to explain how this was just because he wanted his sister to meet her without getting everyone else unnecessarily involved.

So maybe the bet was a good thing after all?

Jaune didn't realize until later on that, in truth, he probably could've just told his team about what was going on and they'd probably agree to help.

His major concern wasn't even his teammates, in truth.

It was more for what might actually happen if his sister were to meet team RWBY, and hear about the insanely dangerous circumstances they constantly put themselves in.

Even if he was training to become a huntsman... No, even though Sedeqe herself was a huntress herself, his morality would be of concern, especially with his semblance being what it was...

If she knew of the things they pulled themselves into, Sedeqe would instantly realize her mistake in letting him come here.

Jaune had worked hard enough to get here to begin with.

He didn't want his friends causing any more trouble for him when his sister would be ruthless enough without knowledge of their escapades.

Jaune thought all of this as he walked towards the exit of the cafeteria, eyes as weary as they were minutes before he'd asked Pyrrha the question that led to this situation.

Would life ever be a little less strange for him?

Jaune pondered this question in that moment, walking past Yang, who directed him to walk to the nearby library.

As he entered the library as directed, Jaune immediately spotted Pyrrha sitting on a bench next to the entrance, facing away from where he entered from, the side of her forehead pressed against the window.

Pyrrha had that pensive look on her face again, he noted, and he walked toward her leisurely.

He patted her lightly on her shoulder, Pyrrha looking up at him for a moment before her face became slightly red again, not to a noticeable degree, but enough for Pyrrha to feel the blood in her cheeks rising a bit in embarrassment, as the sight of Jaune reminded her of the things told to her in that short period of time when Yang had kidnapped her.

Jaune, needless to say, was oblivious to this.

He scratched his head and gave her an awkward smile, "I'm sorry about that. I didn't mean for those two to do that to you."

"It's fine Jaune..." Pyrrha breathed slowly, her heart racing, not from Jaune being near her, but her still recovering from being so deeply startled by Yang picking her up in the fashion that she had without warning.

But things would turn out okay, she told herself.

Even if the thought of going out with Jaune made her feel elated, there wasn't any real chance that what Yang had warned her about would come true.

Jaune simply wasn't close to her to that extent...

"You're probably wondering why I asked you out to begin with." Jaune's voice brought her back to the present.

"I am actually." Pyrrha responded honestly, pushing away all thoughts of what Yang had told her.

Knowing Jaune, he'd probably meant it in some other way.

Maybe he just wanted to do something fun with her.

"I asked because a relative of mine is coming to town and I wanted you to meet her with me. Would you mind if you came with me?"

The second part of his explanation flew right over Pyrrha's head, one of the things Yang had warned her about ringing in her head.

 _"Remember Pyrrha, he'll only be serious about dating you if he's completely willing to show you to his family. If he makes it clear that he has a girlfriend to them from the get-go, he might be considering to ask for his parents' blessing for you guys to get married."_ Yang had said with a serious tone, Ruby nodding behind her with crossed arms and closed eyes.

 _"But Yang, I hardly imagine that he'd have those kind of intentions."_

 _"I'm passing this knowledge from a sister to a fellow sister of the sisterhood of the Pumpkin. You'll thank me later if it turns out he isn't being serious. Give him a few days, and then ask if he's told his family, any of them, about you. If he says no, dump him."_

 _"But I haven't even agreed to go out with him yet!"_

 _"You were going to. Let's not ignore the obvious."_ Yang stood up straight and held her hips, _"Remember the warning Pyrrha. Be wary of your relationship, especially in public. If he isn't bothered by you showing him affection, then that's the first step. Give it a few month_ s _if he wants to do unmentionable things. Tell him you're waiting for marriage and will only do it if you guys are married. Got it?"_

 _"Yang, this is going a little overboard for - "_

 _"Got it?"_ Yang said again, and though Pyrrha was a bit miffed about being cut off, she didn't voice it, giving a simple nod.

Yang smiled, then walked away after Ruby, _"Stay here. We'll send your clumsy knight to you."_

This conversation rang in her mind's ear, and thinking this, Pyrrha held her head and shook the words out.

She liked Jaune, admittedly in a romantic way, but she was fairly certain that she wasn't infatuated to that extent with him.

Honestly, what was the point in Yang doing that to her?

"Pyrrha?"

"Oh, yes?" Pyrrha looked up at Jaune.

"Would you mind coming with me to meet my sister?"

"No, I wouldn't mind," she said without thinking, smiling up at her friend, "I'm okay with seeing them with you.

"Happy to hear it." Jaune responded, "Should we go then? You kind of just left your food out in the open. I don't think you want to waste anything."

"Yes, it'd be best to go now." Pyrrha stood up, both walking out of the library.


	2. Lack of Preperation

The days following Sedeqe proclaiming that she would be coming to see Jaune and Pyrrha passed by rather smoothly, if Jaune himself had to say anything about it.

Though the small band of friends Jaune had were all still relatively surprised at the new batch of information shown to them, misunderstood as it had been, the novelty of it gradually wore off, and many hours afterwards Jaune received a message from Sedeqe herself, saying she'd be arriving by port on Friday night.

Though this had reduced the time before she was expected to arrive in Vale to four days instead of seven, Jaune didn't necessarily mind the change in schedule.

As far as he was concerned, the sooner he could get everything over and done with, the quicker he could just return to his life as the wimp of the group, a nickname he'd mentally given himself when he tried to categorize everyone he was relatively close to.

Though he was still trying to find words to describe Ren, Nora and Ruby, he had already designated nicknames to everyone else based on their role, Blake being the bookworm, Yang being the short tempered cheerleader, Pyrrha being, for lack of a better phrase, the bad ass of the group, and Weiss as the stuck-up princess.

Jaune recalled his nicknames for everyone and mentally shrugged to himself at his own method of naming as he was brought back to the present by the Ruby's voice beside him.

"Jaune?" She called out to him from his side.

They were walking inside of the library now, with Ruby's voice barely being an audible whisper due to the quiet atmosphere, them browsing through books.

"Yeah Ruby?"

"Are you okay? You seemed pretty deep in thought there." Ruby commented, half glancing at him and half glancing at the books in the shelves, a list in her left hand.

This was something proposed by Weiss that everyone agreed that they would do for the year, since they had all of the same classes.

This agreement was that everyone would be divided into pairs of two, with the chosen pair going to the library to pick up any books that would be needed for any homework assignments they had for that day.

There had never been a fixed system for which pairs would always go, as the pair was always decided by everyone drawing straws, the distributors being the ones who had gone the last time.

At that point, Jaune had gone to get the books with Ren, Blake, Weiss, and, needless to say, Ruby.

His experiences with Ren and Blake had been fairly similar, with them being brief and quiet, while his experiences with Weiss were predictably filled with him trying to make small talk with her only for the girl to give him the cold shoulder, her expressions reflecting her reluctance in being the person to be paired with him, which Jaune could only somewhat understand.

While he was perfectly aware of the fact that his flirting with her had gotten on her nerves, he had momentarily stopped after a couple of weeks worth of failed attempts, with him only trying again to ask her out on dates as per Sedeqe's requests/commands.

In the times where Jaune had been paired with Weiss however, it was well after he'd stopped any and all attempts at "wooing" her.

Though he was, again, aware of the fact that he and Weiss weren't exactly what people would call close, he honestly saw no reason that the task of him simply being friendly would evoke that bad of a reaction out of her.

Sure, if she didn't like him because she had gotten a bad first impression of him, he could understand her being reluctant to being paired with him, but was it really necessary to send an icy glare his way almost every time he tried to talk with her?

He mentally sighed, bringing himself back to the present, "Don't worry, I'm just fine."

"Were you thinking about your date with Pyrrha tomorrow?" Ruby asked with a playful smile.

She knew of the change of schedule simply because of the fact that he had asked Pyrrha if she'd be alright with it, to which she agreed, as Nora was present.

With Ruby and company somehow knowing about the change in schedule the day afterwards, it didn't take Jaune long to connect the dots.

"No. I'm just thinking about how weird it is that you're not jumping at the chance to take a nap for once," Jaune told a half-truth.

While it was true that he actually had been thinking about seeing Sedeqe again, it was also true that Ruby often decided to take naps whenever she and Jaune were paired up.

The reason for this was extremely understandable; Ruby had skipped two years of training and education at Signal Academy, her combat school before Beacon, all due to her skill with fighting enemies with Crescent Rose.

While she was fine when it came to the training side of things, educationally Ruby was still a full two years behind everyone, to the point that even Jaune himself, with his just above average grades, imagined that she'd be better off if he helped her.

It was common knowledge within the group that Ruby had immense difficulty adjusting to the new workloads provided by Beacon, a not very surprising sight being her desperately fighting sleep as she sat in class, her head bobbing down so that it hung itself before springing faintly back up, Ruby taking notes that, at times, made little to no sense, the worst of these being her somehow mixing in comic book characters into her notes in her geography course.

This behavior didn't fail to catch everyone's eye, and though Jaune had refrained from offering help because Ruby already had help from Weiss and their teammates for school, he was forced to help her, in his own way, when he was paired with her for the very first time for checking out all of the books.

At that time, Ruby was deeply suffering from sleep deprivation, and it visibly showed in the bags that had formed under her eye sockets, as well as the general lack of optimistic energy that would characteristically fill her silver irises.

"Ruby, do you want me to handle getting the books for today?" Jaune could remember asking her that day.

"No Jaune," Ruby had given him a forced smile, "I can handle it, don't worry."

He more or less forced her to sit down in a chair to wait for him when Ruby, who had the list of books they needed, actually forgot numerous times where she was supposed to look for said books after looking for them in the matter of a few seconds, as well as mixing up the words for some titles of the books.

After Jaune had successfully checked out all of the books, he came back to where he'd left Ruby to find her on her cheek as she sat in an almost limp state, her breathing and closed eyes revealing that she was taking a nap then.

He then proceeded to sit down with her and waited for a half hour before waking Ruby up, and Ruby had developed a habit of just napping while Jaune did most of the work whenever they were paired up together ever since, her only taking some of the books they'd brought out.

It was possible that her sleeping schedule had changed for the better however, Jaune noted, realizing that he hadn't actually had the chance to go for the library run with Ruby in quite a long time.

Regardless, Ruby took Jaune's words without anger or offense, simply accepting his words lightheartedly and speaking with a shrug, "I don't feel as tired today as I usually am, so I thought I'd actually help out for once."

"What are you planning?" Jaune asked without thinking, tone and gaze knowing as the latter was aimed at her.

There were so few things that actually gave Ruby the energy to be in such of a happy state, especially now, during a weekday, that Jaune knew it had to be either fighting or her planning something that caused it, as the only third and fourth alternatives to her having a large amount of physical energy was her drinking coffee, which tended to put her in a fouler mood than before during her withdrawal stage of consuming caffiene, and worrying about someone, neither ever reasonably being a reason to be happily energetic.

As she didn't have Crescent Rose in her holster, Jaune only needed to recall how bad Ruby was when they were being trained in hand to hand combat, as well as how she complained about how it was "such a useless class to take when they would always end up using their weapons anyways," in order for him to use the process of elimination to know she was planning something.

"I'm not planning anything Jaune." Ruby immediately denied, which only made Jaune all the more suspicious of her, even if she hadn't anything about her plans to anyone, at least as far as he knew, as was her habit when she wasn't fighting.

Despite his skepticism however, Jaune didn't let it show on his face, looking back at the piece of paper Ruby had in her hand, "What else do we need to check-out?"

"Just a few more books for Oobleck's class." Ruby said, Jaune nodding his understanding before walking a bit forward, leading Ruby to the History section of the library.

As they reached the section and started to look for the books they needed, Jaune heard Ruby ask behind him, "Do you have any plans for your date with Pyrrha?"

"Not really." Jaune said without looking back at her.

"Why don't you?"

"I just wanted to go out with her, nothing more than that."

"Really?"

"Really."

"Okay then." Ruby responded, walking in front of him while wearing a serious expression despite this.

As she stopped walking and fully faced him, Jaune too stopped, seeing her looking up at him for a moment.

When she failed to meet his expectation that she wanted to say something, Jaune assumed that there was something behind him, and as he turned to see what she was looking at, he started to ask, "What's wrong?"

When he turned his head, he found nothing behind him, and as he turned to Ruby again, he could see her expression looked somewhat troubled, her looking down as though trying to find the right words to say, the boy finding her cheeks to be noticeably redder than they usually were.

"Jaune..."

"Ruby, are you alright?" Jaune asked somewhat worriedly.

Maybe he'd been wrong about her planning something.

Based on her expression, someone she cared about might've been in some kind of pinch after all.

"I'm alright Jaune, it's just..." Ruby sighed softly, "There's something Yang wanted me to give to you."

"Couldn't she have given to me herself?" Jaune asked, knowing full well that was the more likely thing Yang would do.

"She wanted to, but she said it'd be less conspicuous if I did it."

"What did she want to give to me?"

She paused for a moment, then said, "It's in my locker right now. I'll give it to you after we bring the books back."

* * *

Several minutes later, after Jaune and Ruby had in fact brought everything back to their teams and left immediately afterwards on the basis of Ruby saying she needed to talk to Jaune, they were before Ruby's locker, the girl opening it up while speaking with him again.

"Yang said she didn't want to get herself completely involved, but she still wanted to give you this," Ruby pulled out a brown paper bag, the opening wrapped tightly up.

She stared down at the bag for a minute longer, the redness on her almost sickly pale cheeks evident, before, almost reluctantly, handed it to Jaune.

The boy took the bag and felt that it was filled with very few things, whatever the contents were, and after realizing this, asked the obvious question, "What is this?"

"It's... it's something that should come in handy," Ruby said in a sheepish tone as she closed her locker door, slowly turning to face Jaune, "Keep some in your - wait, don't open it here!"

She said this frantically as Jaune tried to look inside of the closed bag, her hand grabbing his to stop it, her red face becoming pale as her heart nearly stopped.

"What's in here Ruby?" Jaune asked again, voice taking a note of surprise.

"I... Look, I can't tell you right now," Ruby's eyes glanced over at the people walking in the hallway, before going back to Jaune, "Just keep a few in your wallet just in case..."

"In case what?" Jaune asked after she trailed off.

"Just keep some in your wallet Jaune," Ruby said in a way that could be seen as a warning.

Before he could respond, she walked away, and though he wanted to call out to Ruby, to tell her that he didn't even have a wallet to begin with, he refrained from doing so, watching her as she turned a corner in the hallway before looking down at the half-open bag again.

Making a fully conscious decision to disobey what Ruby said, Jaune opened the bag up completely and held the opening in the light so he could see the contents.

Looking inside the bag made him freeze for a moment.

He continued to stare inside blankly as he slowly realized the reason that Ruby said not to open it up to begin with.

Inside the bag lay a few condoms.

Of all the things to give him, Yang had wanted to give Jaune condoms.

There were no two ways of looking at what this meant.

Jaune had a blank expression as he rolled the opening of the bag closed, his eyes half-lidded as he did this, before he walked, with the bag tightly clutched in his hand, to the nearest trash can, throwing the bag away before promptly trying to completely forget about the bag and its contents.

* * *

When the day had finally come for Jaune to go and meet his eldest sister, he was surprised at just how nervous he felt as the day wore itself on.

Few words were actually exchanged between Pyrrha and himself in the many hours that passed by in that day, the closest things to this being some awkward stares between them that were only broken by an equally uncomforting greeting.

If Jaune didn't know better, he would've thought that Pyrrha was extremely nervous when it came to her thinking of the "date" they were about to go on.

However, Pyrrha, in truth, for the past few days, seemed rather excited by the thought of the semi-scheduled events, if her actions said anything of it.

Many times Pyrrha could be found picking out her attire for the event, changing it to fit her liking to it.

Though Jaune at one point questioned her on this, she seemed to look nervous when he did, her asking if she was overdoing it.

Having seen her go about it so happily however, Jaune simply gave her a half-hearted warning to not overstimulate her imagination of how Friday night would go - it was still them only going out to meet his sister after all - as to avoid any chances of her being disappointed by it.

Even though he had it rooted deeply into his mind that what he and Pyrrha were doing wasn't a date, Jaune was guilty of the fact that he too gradually gained a dating type of view of their plans.

It was pretty hard not to when he started setting aside a budget simply for that night so the duo could get something to eat, in the event that they would feel hungry for anything.

When the day finally ended, Jaune had been heading straight to his dorm room, as was usual for him at the end of the day, in order for him to rest his mind a little.

The same could be usually be said for Pyrrha, but since everyone had picked straws for who would go on today's library run, with Ruby and himself being exempt since they'd gone the last time, Pyrrha hadn't joined him because she'd be going with Yang for it.

It was when he was a few halls away from reaching his dorm that it happened.

As Jaune was just about to turn the corner to reach his dorm room, he came face to face with a girl with orange hair and green eyes.

"Oh, hey Nora." Jaune waved his greeting to his companion, him intent on walking past Nora, only for the girl to raise an arm in front of him.

Jaune looked down at Nora's arm, not understanding what she was doing.

Before he could voice it however, Nora spoke, "We've been given strict orders to help you."

"Huh?"

She didn't respond verbally, but physically, bending her lungs down before wrapping his arm around Jaune's waist, moving forward as Jaune was thrown onto Nora's shoulder, the girl yelling back behind herself, "Sun, I've got the package, come on!"

Seeing the blonde faunus running suit behind Nora, who carried him hostage style past many of their peers, Jaune questioned them as calmly as possible.

"What the heck are you guys doing?!"

"That is currently classified!" Sun yelled in response, Jaune just starting to struggle to get off of Nora's shoulder when the running girl skidded to a stop in front of a door, Sun stopping next to her and grabbing the door handle, throwing it wide open, it slamming against the wall, revealing another dorm room, Nora hurling Jaune off of her shoulder with a grunt, him flying inside of the room.

Jaune hit the floor of the well-lit room with a surprised expression, his bearings a bit scattered, disabling his ability to get back up at that moment.

He could only see Sun looking down at him with a smile, "Alright, package secured. The heist is done on our end."

"What the heck are you guys doing?" Jaune asked again, Nora returning her attention to him.

"Don't worry Jaune. Just put on the clothes we set out for you." She responded with a smile.

"Gotta look sharp for your date!" Sun raised his index finger in a playful manner, reaching for the door handle despite himself.

This was all Sun said before he slammed the door shut.

Jaune groaned slightly as he forced himself to get up after regaining his bearings, looking around the room to find that one bed had a full set of clothes laid out and ironed for him.

Looking at them, Jaune face palmed, sighing softly with closed eyes.

This had Yang written all over it.

How long she'd been planning this, Jaune didn't know.

As he walked up to the bed, Jaune picked up the shirt that had been chosen for him, it being a gray long sleeved shirt, he looked it over, finding that it looked to be just his size, or at least close to it.

Eyebrows furrowing themselves, Jaune instinctively placed each of his hands on the lining that'd separate the front of the shirt to its back, pulled the front side of shirt that would wrap around a person's neck back, towards himself, with his right thumb, and held the revealed back of the shirt into the light so he could see what size it was.

When he saw the size it was, Jaune blinked when he saw that the size of the shirt was one that would fit him perfectly for that moment in time, and quite possibly for a long time in the future, lest he were to grow again sometime soon.

The fact that it was his size, when he'd most definitely had never seen the shirt before, creeped him out somewhat.

When had they bought this?

How did they know what size shirt he wore?

As he pondered this question, Jaune came to a realization.

Not too many days ago, on the very same day that Jaune had gone on the library run with Ruby in fact, he had returned to his dorm room to find that the clothes in his closet had been rearranged in his section of his team's closet.

He had only noticed because usually his regular clothes would be organized by color, going from bright to dark, moving in order of an artist's color wheel, going from red, to orange, to yellow, to green, to blue, to purple, and to claret, in that order. While he admittedly didn't have all of these colors in attire, this had been his reference to organizing them.

When he'd returned to the dorm room and had opened the closet however, he found that some of the shirts he had had lost their orderly pattern of going from bright to dark, minute as the changes were.

At the time Jaune had seen this, he simply asked Nora, who had been sitting in the room with her face buried in a book, if anyone had gone through his clothes.

With what seemed to be a smile and tone of someone who was trying their hardest to stifle their laughter, Nora responded by saying no.

In that moment, he wanted to question what she had found so funny, but Jaune deducing that it had been the book she'd been reading, he had thought nothing at all of her laughter, and simply thought that he had been seeing nonexistent changes in his clothesline.

At the present moment however, Jaune slowly turned to glare at the doorway, where Nora and Sun were sure to be behind.

So Nora had been a part of Ruby and Yang's plan...

He thought this before slowly looking back to the set of clothes, throwing the shirt down carelessly on the bed and picking up the jeans that lay next to where the shirt had been, them being a significantly darker gray than the shirt, checking the size and finding it to be one that'd fit his size exactly.

Seeing this, the evidence that someone really _had_ gone through his clothes became all the more potent.

He glanced at the remaining three items on the bed, finding them to be a scarf that had black as its primary color that had white cutting it into identical squares throughout it, a pair of black shoes that looked to have paper taped to them, and a ball of what he could only assume to be black socks.

He set the jeans down on the bed, and then walked to the shoes, drawn to them by the pieces of paper, and lifted them up, one for each of his hands, his look being that of curiosity before turning into one of annoyed exasperation instantly.

In blue pen, on pieces of torn out loose leaf paper, were the words "Left" and "Right" taped onto each corresponding shoe.

Why, he thought to himself, why would anyone do this?

Just because his shoes had the words "Left" and "Right" written on them didn't mean he didn't know which shoe came onto which.

They had just been that way when he bought them!

He knew she had been trying to help, but did Yang really think he couldn't tell the shoes apart?

His face grew into a scowl.

"Well screw you too Yang." He said bitterly.

Throwing the shoes onto the bed again, Jaune reached his right hand behind his head, sighing as he scratched the back of it, hand holding his hip.

Alright, he thought after a moment, since they had gone through the trouble of buying these for me, he might as well wear them.

Turning to the door, Jaune walked towards it, taking a firm hold on the door handle and pulling it hard back to make sure the door was completely closed. When he found it had already been closed all the way, he locked the door to make sure neither Sun nor Nora walked in on him dressing, and went back to the bed, slipping himself out of his uniform overcoat and shirt, putting the clothes on his body one piece at a time.

When he was finished with everything except for the shoes and the scarf, there came the sound of someone knocking on the door, "Hey Jaune, you almost done changing in there?"

It was Sun saying this.

"What if I'm not?" Jaune asked the faunus in response.

"You don't need to know." Nora replied for Sun.

He had pulled his shoes on now, tearing the taped-on papers off, and was walking to the door while trying to figure out how to go about putting on his scarf, holding his folded up uniform clothes in his hand with the scarf on top of the pile as he unlocked the door, opening it to find Sun walking towards the wall opposite of the dorm room Jaune was in, Nora pacing the hall in a bored manner.

"I'm done." He called out to them, the two looking back at him and smiling.

"You look nice Jaune," Nora walked in front of him, looking down at his scarf, "Why aren't you wearing your scarf?"

"I don't know to put one on." Jaune responded with blunt honesty.

"Why don't you?" Sun asked, hands brought up behind his head as he walked behind Nora, "It seems like it should be easy."

"You put it on then." Jaune said, pushing the pile of clothes he had in his arms to the faunus, who saw the scarf and picked it up, him putting the scarf symmetrically around his neck and trying to wrap it around it by throwing one end over his shoulder.

Finding this solution to be less than satisfactory for his appearance, Sun removed the scarf and tried a different method.

And then he tried again.

And again.

And again.

When Sun had failed to make the scarf come around his neck well for the sixth time, he sighed his defeat and gave the scarf to Jaune, who took it with an air of smugness, "Guess it's not very easy after all."

"I was wrong, I admit it." Sun shrugged.

"Why did you guys get me a scarf like this to begin with?" Jaune asked.

"Well, Yang wanted to -" Nora started to answer, but then realized her mistake and clapped a hand over her mouth with wide eyes.

The damage had been done however.

Had Jaune's arms not been burdened by his school uniform, he would've crossed his arms.

"So Yang was behind this after all..."

Nora looked down at that, and Sun laughed lightly at this, "Guess she let the cat out of the bag."

Seeing as how she'd already revealed it, Nora kept talking, "Sorry. Yang didn't want us to tell you, but she bought everything for you beforehand so you'd be ready."

"Why did she buy me a scarf?" Jaune asked.

"She wanted to buy you one to match your hair, but she thought that'd looked a bit girly." Nora explained in a way that suggested this was supposed to make him feel better, even if it truthfully hadn't answered his question in any way.

As he imagined himself in a scarf the same color as his hair, Jaune realized how right Yang had been in her judgement.

What kind of guy actually goes around with something that yellow on? Jaune thought, vividly imagining someone his age with a yellow scarf on, the rest of the world turned into a monochromatic gray in order to emphasize the yellow's presence in mindscape, the reason for this being unknown to the boy.

Bringing himself out of his imaginary world, Jaune looked at Nora, "But that doesn't explain why she bought it in the first place."

"What, you got something against scarves?" Sun said in mock-offense, smiling at Jaune.

Jaune shook his head, "No, that's not it, it just feels weird to try wearing it is all."

"Scarves look good on anyone though."

"Really?"

"Yeah, just try imagining anyone you know wearing one."

The first person to come to Jaune's mind was Ruby, and he could actually see it; there would be a crimson red scarf hung loosely around her neck, as well as the part of her signature hood that connected the hood and her cape.

For a moment, Jaune imagined her wearing the scarf in her usual attire, but then decided that the clothes she usually wore made the additional scarf look strange, not because the scarf itself was strange, but because the image of Ruby wearing that exact attire had been so deeply engrossed in his mind that the addition seemed outside of the norm for her.

And so his mind wandered to imagining her wearing the scarf with the attire she wore the same night that Atlesian Paladin went tearing through the streets, and Jaune believed that would fit Ruby better, as the image came out not as weirdly to him.

She would still wear her hood along with the scarf, and with her outfit from that day adding a sci-fi edge to it, the scarf made her look cooler in his mind's eye.

Realizing he felt this way towards the image, Jaune then imagined Yang wearing a yellow scarf, Blake wearing a black scarf, Pyrrha wearing a -

" _Remnant to Jaune_." Sun's hand was waving in Jaune's face, and Jaune jumped from his momentary lapse from reality.

"Sorry, what did you say?" Jaune asked.

"I said not to think too deeply about it, but I guess you were already lost in your own imagination." Sun answered his question.

"I'll..." Jaune spoke with a sheepish look, "I'll... just get going now."

He started to walk away, hoping to go to his dorm room, only for Nora's hand to grasp his shoulder, "Wait Jaune, I'll take everything back."

Jaune gave her a half glance back, "Don't worry, I can handle it."

"No, that's not what I meant. Pyrrha's in there right now, and it'll ruin the surprise if you see each other before the date starts." Nora tried to explain, walking to Jaune's side to take his clothes, only for the boy to jerk it away from her grasp.

"It's a date, not a wedding," Jaune replied.

"I know. Let me bring them back for you Jaune."

Once again, Nora reached for the clothes, and Jaune pulled away.

"It'll be fine Nora, it's no problem. I can carry these back mysel..." Jaune trailed off in his sentence when he felt a pair of arms push themselves forcibly around his stomach, the hands the arms belonged to gripping the ends of their forearms to lock themselves in place, Jaune barely registering this before he felt his feet leave the ground, him rising a short distance into the air before the wind blew past his head, and the next second Jaune's scalp rammed into the ground, the clothes falling out of his arms as he was brought to the ground.

The arms detached themselves, letting gravity take its course on Jaune's body, his face being the first to hit the ground, then his chest, then his abdomen, and finally his legs, from his thighs, to his knees to finally his feet, his toes keeping his calves from touching the ground.

Lying in his dazed defeat, Jaune was unable to stop Nora from picking up all of his clothes from the floor, leaving only the scarf, which she dropped on his body, before walking away, Nora never looking back at her opponent, who had never even realized the match had begun when it had started.

As Sun looked at this, he was too surprised to even laugh, looking between the form of a dazed and face-down Jaune and the steadily shrinking form of Nora as she walked further and further away from them.

* * *

"Was it even necessary for her to do that?" Jaune asked Sun outside of the dorm room, holding his nose as he asked the question in a voice that was more nasally than normal.

"Hey, you never know, she may have her reasons." Sun shrugged next to him.

"You aren't cold wearing just that?" Jaune asked the boy next to him.

The snow still falling rapidly made it go without saying that it was cold outside, with the wind-shield barrier not helping in any way, yet Sun was only wearing a white t-shirt under his white vest.

"I've been through a lot worse than this. So I'm good." Sun waved Jaune's question away with a nonchalant wave of his hand.

"Doesn't mean you won't get sick from it." Jaune responded.

"I'm a faunus, my immune system works differently from yours."

"Hm." Jaune nodded his understanding, waiting for a few moments more to see if Pyrrha would be coming down yet.

When he looked inside the entrance however, he found a bespectacled man with green hair walking out instead, Oobleck immediately taking notice of Jaune and Sun as they sat outside idly.

He zipped in front of them, looking down at Sun, "Why are you two sitting out here? You'll surely get sick if you remain for too long!"

"This loser's got a date." Sun's thumb pointed itself at Jaune.

"Ah, yes, I'd heard." Oobleck looked at Jaune with a nod.

"Huh? How did you know?" Jaune asked Oobleck with a surprised look.

"Well, it was originally brought to my attention a few days prior to now," Oobleck pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose, "Your aquaintance Ruby Rose asked me if she and her friends could borrow my classroom for planning something together. I only agreed on the condition that it would not result in the destruction of school property, and Ms. Rose agreed. She and many of her friends took control of the classroom, and just to be on the safe side, I eavesdropped on their plans to make sure nothing bad would come of it," he adjusted his coat, and had it not been for the cold, Jaune would've sworn Oobleck had done this in a bout of self-pride, "As promised, Ms. Rose and her sister planned something with their friends that would not result in school property being destroyed. Instead what they were planning was much worse."

Jaune tilted his head, "What? How?"

"They were planning what they called the "date heist". In this specific heist, there were several steps. The first step was to make sure to have you and Ms. Nikos out of your dorm room to make sure that they could take notes on the kind of clothes you wore. The next step was to rig some straw drawing contest so that they could kidnap Ms. Nikos when she was least expecting it whilst doing the same thing to you," as Oobleck spoke, Jaune felt the pieces of the puzzle coming together in his mind, "Then they planned to force you to change into the clothes they bought you."

"Really?" Though Jaune said this in response to Oobleck, his gaze had turned to Sun, who chuckled a bit and scratched the back of his head.

"Yes. The next step of the "date heist" was for Ms. Rose and Ms. Belladonna to dress up as a married couple of a sort that would follow you everywhere you went. Apparently Ms. Rose decided to change to something else... what was it? Oh yes! Rubin! She said she would wear a moustache and would refer to herself as Rubin! And Ms. Belladonna would be her, as Ms. Xiao Long said, "the pregnant wife who's happily married to Rubin." Their primary goal was to stalk you and Ms. Nikos for most of the night, and then have Ms. Xiao Long step in and hopefully manage to force you to take all four of them out to eat at a restaurant at your expense."

"... hah..." Jaune forced a laugh out of his mouth, looking slowly down at the scarf in his hand, "This gesture of kindness suddenly feels so much less kinder..."

"You have a scarf? Why aren't you wearing it Mr. Arc?" Oobleck asked him.

For once, Jaune had the answer to one of Oobleck's questions, "I don't know how to put it on professor."

"Ah, let me see it." Oobleck snatched the scarf out of Jaune's hand, then moved quickly, arms a blur, Oobleck moving his hands away a moment later to show that he'd put on Jaune's scarf the right way.

"You... You know how to...?"

"Obviously I do. I wanted to warn you of the impending danger Mr. Arc, so I'm quite glad we had this talk."

"Why didn't you warn me before now?"

"I wanted to, and then I forgot."

Jaune couldn't find it within himself to feel outraged anymore, "Well... I'm glad you remembered at the last minute."

"Yes! A Deus Ex Machina at its finest. Good day to you," Oobleck turned around, "My fair gentlemen!"

With that he zipped out of sight.

"Is his semblance speed like Ruby's or something?" Sun asked Jaune while staring at the spot where Oobleck had been.

"I'm not talking to you." Jaune said in a monotone.

"Hm? But why?"

"Because you were in on this." Jaune fixed Sun with a glare.

"Oh come on Jaune, you really think Ruby is going to go around with a moustache claiming she's a dude named Rubin?"

"Considering the fact that you and Nora kidnapped me, I'm not so sure."

"Lighten up Jaune, it's not like everyone involved is getting something out of this."

"How many people are involved in this?" Jaune asked.

Sun, having been caught, answered honestly, "Everyone except for Neptune, Weiss and Ren."

"EVERYONE?!" Jaune exclaimed.

"Everyone. Blake and Ruby probably helped Yang kidnap Pyrrha, and Nora and I were obviously there to kidnap you."

"But why?!"

"I thought that guy just told you. It's all part of a date heist."

Jaune looked like he wanted to say a rebuttal, but stopped himself, sighing heavily while muttering under his breath, "Screw my life."

Sun patted him on the back, "Don't worry, things'll turn out fine."

"Yeah right..."

When they heard the door opening next to them, both blondes looked up to find Yang at the entrance, holding the door for Pyrrha.

"YOU!" Jaune stood up and pointed at Yang in an accusatory manner.

"'Sup?" Yang held a hand with a smile on her face, as though there was nothing wrong at all.

"Why did you organize for us to get kidnapped?" Jaune yelled.

"I don't have any idea what you're talking about." Yang denied and shrugged her shoulders.

Bull.

Crap.

"So, Pyrrha, ready yet?" Yang looked back at the girl behind her, Pyrrha slinking back into the warmth of the dorms but being supportively pushed forward by Nora.

"I suppose..." Pyrrha said reluctantly, looking at Yang after a look to Jaune that told him that she was as exasperated as he was.

This simple optical exchange was enough to calm Jaune down somewhat, him standing a bit straighter now.

Seeing Pyrrha walking out of the building made Jaune look at her outfit, and he could tell very easily that Yang had decided to be more colorful with hers'.

A white colored jacket came over a form fitting green top, a black padded vest on top of the jacket, her skirt being twice as long as it usually was, being a blue jean skirt that reached just above her knees, with very long socks that stretched themselves up into her skirt, most likely to keep out the cold, and Pyrrha's regular high heels.

Looking back up at Pyrrha, she met his gaze, her having looked his appearance over as well.

Staring at one another a moment, the two fell into an awkward silence, it being obvious both wanted to say something, but neither knowing what to say.

Jaune ultimately took the initiative, "You... look nice Pyrrha."

The compliment breaking through the silence, Pyrrha looked a bit surprised, but nodded and smiled, "You look nice too Jaune."

After a few more seconds of silence, Jaune pointed away from the dorm, "Do... you want to get going?"

Pyrrha nodded, smile still there, "Sure."

As the two walked off, Sun was the first to speak when they got out of earshot, "That had to be the most awkward greeting I've ever seen in my life."

"Doesn't matter." Yang turned to go back inside, pulling a walkie talkie from her shirt pocket, "Crimson Pops, are you and Neko Wife following the targets?"

"Yes, Darkness in the Light!" Ruby's voice came through.

"Don't let them out of your sight, we feast tonight!" Yang punched the air in emphasis, despite Ruby not being able to see her.

* * *

"Do you often see your sister?" Pyrrha asked Jaune after a minute or so of walking.

"It's been a while, so not really. I just talk to her often." Jaune explained.

"Why did she decide to come visit then?" Pyrrha asked, curiosity driving her.

"She has her reasons. She always does. She just never tells me."

"I see. I don't mind going to see her though."

"Really?" Jaune glanced at her.

"Yes. I'm quite curious about your family. I always wondered what it'd be like to have many siblings."

"It sucks." Jaune said in a flat tone, almost instantly.

"Oh..."

Pyrrha wasn't sure how to respond to that.

"Sure, it can have its moments, but growing up the eigth son can be hard when you have no other brothers for you to be with."

"I see..."

Once more, they fell into an awkward silence.

"Do you have any friends from Mistral you miss?"

"Hm?" Pyrrha looked up, as though he'd taken her out of a moment of thought, "Oh, no, no one really. The only people I could really call friends were people I often fought in tournaments..."

Jaune saw Pyrrha looking down, as though the thought saddened her, and he patted her back, "At least that isn't the way things are now."

Hearing these words, Pyrrha smiled back at him, then playfully punched him in the shoulder.

However, she was still unable to properly calculate how hard to punch him, and Jaune lost his balance quickly, falling over while skidding slightly on the ground.

Pyrrha whipped her gaze to him immediately, and she kneeled down next to him, "Oh, Jaune, I'm sorry, I..."

She stopped when she heard the sound of him laughing.

Jaune looked up at her after a moment, smile still on his face, "You still have a good arm Pyrrha."

"Uh... thank you." Seeing that Jaune wasn't hurt, she mentally sighed in relief, reaching a hand out for Jaune to take, the boy taking it and letting her help him pull him back on his feet.

When he'd been pulled onto his feet again, Jaune looked towards the city in the distance, then to the stairs leading to the train that'd take them to it, "Ready to go Pyrrha?"

Pyrrha nodded, walking towards the stairs ahead of Jaune, and he kept up his smile until she was in front of him, his face going sour and him grasping his shoulder, mouthing a word of pain before following after Pyrrha.

When he reached the peak of the stairs however, Jaune looked back behind himself, searching through an empty area to look for Ruby and Blake.

Not seeing either one, he kept a wary gaze as he walked down the stairs.

Seeing that he was gone, a lone figure sitting on a rooftop lowered binoculars from his eyes, watching as another pair of girls walked in after Jaune and Pyrrha.

Enduring in the blistering cold, the male walked towards the exit to the rooftop where he'd come from, lifting a scroll up and dialing someone all the while.

"Cinder, they're headed towards the city right now." The male said, eyes closed as he tried to endure a few more minutes in the cold, not going inside of the building for fear of someone hearing him.

"The city...? Very well. Come back for now." Cinder's voice spoke through the scroll, and Mercury ended the call before he walked inside, and the warmth of the inside was so strong that it washed itself over his freezing body like the water of a hot bath or shower.

He hugged himself from the cold, and made a show to himself of saying an exxagerated, "Brrrr!"

Walking back to his dorm room, Mercury recalled why he had been chosen to follow their target Pyrrha Nikos while she was in Beacon for the past few days.

Cinder had initially wanted both Emerald and Mercury following her, but only assigned Nikos to him because of the sudden snow storm that had started a little over a week ago.

He initially protested somewhat when he realized he'd be stuck watching Pyrrha via binoculars through a window, it being and feeling as stalkerish as it could get.

However, when Cinder said that it was his "responsibility as a man" to do the painful work for the women in his life, he used that as a motivation.

This motivation was proving to wear him down however.

For the past few days, Nikos had done absolutely nothing noteworthy other than picking through her clothes when she had free time.

The only good thing that had come of it had been him making the assumption that she was going out for something soon, which, based on what he'd seen, had been completely true.

He wasn't sure how much longer he could endure playing stalker however.

Each day when he finally finished with his role in watching Nikos for any way to strip her of her power in fights, which had been pretty fruitless up until now, Mercury would go inside with his fingers and toes feeling almost icy cold, with the warmth of the building actually hurting them until they reached a more suitable temperature for their environment.

Remembering his pain, Mercury scowled somewhat.

"Responsibility as a man, my foot..." He muttered to himself.


	3. Chapter 3

The train ride to the city was uneventful.

For Pyrrha, it often edged itself between being awkward for herself and Jaune, or just as comfortable as they were training with one another, this all being determined through conversation.

Pyrrha herself knew that both she and Jaune weren't the most social people in the world, and trying to take the initiative to avoid making the situation uncomfortable for them, she decided to simply ask Jaune a large sum of questions, though her need to have more questions to ask by the time Jaune finished speaking made her feel, to her own ironic distress, more uncomfortable than when she sat down on the window side of the train seats.

Her brain had been fine-tuned by several years' worth of hard studying, to the point that trying to take in information was easier for her than trying to find ways to get more of it.

Usually she simply listened to other people when there was something wrong, so even though she was decent at conversation, as well as listening to people's problems, this was all for naught when it came to Jaune, who had the bad habit of locking up his problems for only his soul to know, with Pyrrha having to break through it in order to see the content of said problems.

In short, sitting on the train was not a pleasant experience for Pyrrha, this likely to be the case with or without Jaune being present.

She simply disliked the feeling that she was sitting idle when she could doing something more productive with her time.

Needless to say, as they walked out of the train and into the station, Pyrrha was relieved to at least be moving again.

As they exited the station, Pyrrha and Jaune showing their school IDs to let the conductor know to let them out, Jaune immediately told her something afterwards, "We'll be going to the docks to meet my sister."

"Okay." Pyrrha nodded her understanding, walking beside her partner, eyes set forward as they entered the bustling crowd of people.

With the snow suddenly coming in, the people wrapped up in heavy clothing made Pyrrha be somewhat reminded of Christmas.

That was actually a very fitting thing to compare this moment to, she thought with a smile as she looked through her surroundings.

The many stores she and Jaune passed held warm, welcoming glows within them, contrasting greatly with the merciless cold of the outside world at that moment.

Even as she walked towards the docks however, Pyrrha gradually felt something was off.

In her many years of training, Pyrrha could recognize when there was something watching her.

The feeling grew and faded, her aura becoming her sixth sense as she felt it working like an ocean wave, starting up slow and then growing to its crest, before slamming back down to its original place and starting over again.

She felt not one person watching her, but two.

This was assuming that her aura was warning her of things that watched her that weren't in groups.

She kept up a friendly facade to make it so that the people watching her wouldn't think she'd noticed their prying eyes, though Pyrrha was truthfully trying to pinpoint where the watchers were.

There was one on the rooftops above her to her right and another source behind her.

Knowing that she couldn't look behind herself without revealing she knew about the people behind her, Pyrrha decided to look up at the rooftops, her fighting through the winds to keep her eyes from watering up, absolutely straining her eye balls to turn enough so she could hopefully see whatever was following her, Pyrrha occasionally pretending to look into the stores they passed as to turn her head completely and look up at the rooftops, her still finding no one.

Jaune must've taken notice of this, as he said with a playful smile, "Am I being a little boring Pyrrha?"

Pyrrha, who was once again straining to look at the rooftops, snapped her gaze back towards Jaune, her eyes evidently surprised, before she smiled bashfully, "Oh, no, that's not it Jaune."

"You really haven't been saying much for a while now." Jaune pointed out, his hands entering his pockets, "You've been making these sounds but nothing comes out that makes sense."

Pyrrha sighed softly, "I'm sorry Jaune. It's just..."

Pyrrha didn't recreate the friendly facade she had held up minutes beforehand, and with her face and tone now serious, Pyrrha told Jaune about the people that were watching her.

When she finished speaking, Jaune looked slightly behind himself, Pyrrha hissing under her breath, "Don't let them know."

Reading her expression, Jaune looked forward without thinking, asking Pyrrha the question he wanted to ask, "How are you so sure that someone's watching you?"

"Do you remember what I told you before about what our auras let us do?" Jaune shook his head honestly, and Pyrrha explained it to him again, "It's no different than a defense mechanism we have. Anytime something is watching us, we should be able to detect it."

"Really? I don't feel anything though."

"It could be that you don't know how to use your aura all that well," Pyrrha said with a thoughtful expression, "It's either that, or someone's only watching me."

Jaune gave her a long look, seeing her trying to imagine a plan of action, before he sighed fitfully, as though he had been contemplating something and had finally reached a decision, "Pyrrha, there's something I should probably tell you."

"What is it Jaune?" Pyrrha asked curiously.

Jaune told her about the date heist plan as best as could remember from the details Oobleck had given him, and as Pyrrha's eyes slowly raised themselves in realization, they quickly started to harden when Jaune told her of Ruby and Blake's disguises, stopping dead in her tracks and turning quickly around, Pyrrha uncaring of the people around her as she tried to scan the crowd for any sign whatsoever of a red hood or a black bow.

"Come on Pyrrha, we'll end up being late if we stay here for too long." Jaune urged her verbally, watching Pyrrha's back as she eventually gave up, sighing heavily before turning to face Jaune again.

She turned away and walked past him, speaking all the while.

"I'm not going to let you pay for everything yourself Jaune. I'll help if it comes to that."

Jaune followed closely behind her, "Don't worry Pyrrha," walking right next to her now, he glanced at her with a smile, "I don't want you to be the one paying. I'm the one who asked you out."

Pyrrha smiled back at him, almost jokingly, "It's only fair that the guy be the one to pay for a date. But this isn't a date, is it?"

Jaune actually thought this over in his mind for a moment, then shrugged his shoulders, "If you don't want it to be. I wouldn't mind if we called this a date though."

Pyrrha only raised her eyebrow at this, her smile growing slightly, "Really?"

"Yes." Jaune admitted, "Why not say it for what everyone else thinks it is? It's not exactly the worst thing in the world to go on a date with a girl as pretty as you."

The smile she had turned somewhat playful then, "Aren't you supposed to say that I'm beautiful instead of pretty?"

Jaune's smile became somewhat pained as he recalled something in his past.

"I probably should, but from my last experience of going on a date that wasn't the best thing to do..." His body language changed, becoming a bit more huddled, as though he were trying to shield his body with his arms, Jaune not noticing this himself, for it was a reflex.

"Oh? You dated someone before?" Pyrrha felt her smile drop, her eyes flickering in curiosity.

"I'm not sure you could call it that, but yes, I went on one date before this. This is a heck of a lot better than that time was..." Jaune gave a nervous and forced chuckle now.

The same one he always gave when he didn't want to talk about something.

Deciding to let the subject drop, Pyrrha looked from Jaune to the direction they were walking towards, "Do you know how much farther until we reach the docks Jaune?"

Jaune looked forward as well at her question, then nodded after taking notice to his surroundings, "Yes, we shouldn't be too far from them now."

Pyrrha walked with a small amount of anxiety building up within her as she neared their destination now, her mind subconsciously wondering what Jaune's sister looked like.

As they crossed a street section to reach the docks' entrance, Pyrrha could see that Jaune walk with a notably quickened step down the stairs that led to the wooden structure that acted as a place for boats to port, having noticed the boat in the distance at the very end of the port.

As she carefully walked down the steps, Pyrrha took one last look across the sidewalk, searching for any sign of Ruby or Blake.

When she found neither of the two to be in her eyesight, Pyrrha sighed in a mixed sort of relief.

While she couldn't see Ruby or Blake anywhere, her aura still warned her of someone watching her, from the general direction she had just looked.

It was always possible that they were physically hiding from her, Pyrrha reasoned to herself.

Deciding to leave that matter to its own devices, Pyrrha's heels slightly hit the staircase as she walked down, looking at the boat and seeing it was a slightly small sized cruiser, the deck caked entirely in snow.

As she reached the bottom of the stairs, Pyrrha took notice of the fact that a tall figure, who seemed to be a man, had climbed down a rope ladder off the side of the boat, another figure with long flowing hair who seemed to be female leaning herself over the edge of the boat, the two figures looking at one another, seeming to be saying something to one another, before the man lifted his gloved hands up in the air, taking a few careful steps backwards.

The woman mirrored his actions, taking a few steps backwards before she ran towards the edge of the boat, jumping high over the edge of the boat, doing a single front flip forward before she righted herself, her knees tucked tightly together, her arms spread up over her head, her legs sliding slickly through the man's hands, before he tightly took a hold of her waist, the woman's arms still raised, the inertia from the fall making the man somewhat lose his balance, only for him to recover his footing a second later.

From where she was, at the end of the dock, Pyrrha faintly heard the exclaim of joy from a voice that was obviously the woman's, her raised hands tightening into fists, which shook violently as she reveled in her achievement of the strange stunt the man participated in.

Though she stared somewhat at the spectacle, Pyrrha glanced at Jaune and saw he looked a bit bemused at it instead of surprised.

Looking back towards the pair, the man setting the woman down on her feet, Pyrrha wondered for a moment if the woman was Jaune's sister.

Judging from the fact that Jaune's warm smile seemed to grow for every several steps they came closer to the pair next to the boat, with the blonde seeming to walk faster and faster in order to hasten their walk, this seemed rather likely.

As the woman noticed them, she started walking towards them quickly, and when they came within clear ear-shot, the woman spoke, a smile in her voice, "Long time no see Jaune."

"Same to you Sedeqe." Jaune and the woman, Sedeqe, had closed the distance between them now, embracing each other tightly.

Pyrrha looked at the pair with something of an odd look on her face.

Assuming this was Jaune's sister, the show of affection was of no surprise to her, quite the contrary in actuality.

The reason for Pyrrha's odd look was because of Jaune's lack thereof as a reaction to Sedeqe's appearance.

While it was obvious that she had blonde hair, it being a few shades brighter than Jaune's, reaching to her middle back while being wavy near the ends of her locks and straight towards the top of her head, the mask she wore over her face was of much greater conspicuity.

It was a mask that's colors were bisected down the middle, one side, Sedeqe's right, being black, a thin veil under the hole for the right side of the mask's mouth, it curling up into a smile. The other side, Sedeqe's left, was a bright yellow in color, the smile the left side of the mask held curling downwards into a frown. The eyes in the mask held two equally spaced crescents, which did nothing to hide her now closed eyes, one being a crescent that had its pointy edges cast upwards, it being on the right side of the face, and the other crescent an upside down version of its right counterpart, the edges pointed downwards.

Sedeqe and Jaune's embrace ended as Pyrrha took in these details about Sedeqe's strange mask, the holes that revealed her ocean blue eyes seeming to beam at Jaune.

"I'm really glad to see you." Sedeqe said.

"Same here." Jaune said, and Sedeqe looked at Pyrrha then.

"May I assume you're the friend of Jaune's I've heard about?" She walked to stand in front of Pyrrha, the few inches Sedeqe had over her head making Pyrrha feel somewhat small, Sedeqe looking slightly down at her.

"Yes." Pyrrha spoke somewhat uncertainly, a tinge of hesitance in her expression, "Would it be safe to assume that you're Jaune's sister?"

"Yes, my name's Sedeqe." The older woman held her hand out for Pyrrha to shake, and Pyrrha took it graciously, "It's nice to meet you."

"Likewise."

The man who accompanied Sedeqe had walked behind her, Pyrrha quickly taking notice to the fact that he wore a mask exactly like Sedeqe's, only the colors were swapped, the happy looking side of his mask being a bright yellow and the sad looking side being the black side of it.

His eyes were not as warm as Sedeqe's, but were instead observant of Pyrrha, his deep voice catching her attention immediately, "It's good to see you again Jaune."

"Same here." Jaune smiled all the more at the man, who much more quickly put his full attention towards Pyrrha.

"It's nice to finally meet you, Ms. Nikos." Sedeqe had already taken her hand away from Pyrrha's, Shem reaching forward so he could shake her hand as well.

She smiled and shook his hand, "It's nice to meet you as well, Mr..."

Pyrrha's smile dropped, her trailing off as she realized she didn't know the man's last name.

He must have realized it too, for he shook his head, "While I most certainly enjoy a person with formality, if Jaune hasn't already told you who I am, then I'd prefer to keep it from you. You may simply call me Shem, Ms. Nikos."

Though she felt somewhat weird about calling someone by their first name when the person in question called her by her last name, she nodded all the same.

It didn't occur to Pyrrha to ask how Shem knew her last name when she hadn't even properly introduced herself until later on, her simply assuming they'd heard of her somehow at that moment.

When Pyrrha heard Shem speaking about how Jaune hadn't told her about him, she looked over at Jaune a moment, almost in questioning, before looking back to the people who she had so recently met.

It was at that moment that Pyrrha realized she didn't know what to say in that moment, yet thankfully, Shem turned to Sedeqe and Jaune, asking them a question, "Was there any place that you'd like to go to eat?"

"Hm..." Sedeqe's posture fixed itself into a thoughtful position, her holding her chin up while holding her elbow, her eyes closing behind her mask, "I believe there should still be that aquatic restaurant."

"You mean the Messo Merma?" Jaune asked curiously to his sister, Sedeqe nodding greatly.

"Yes, that's the one!"

"Alright." Shem crossed his arms as he bowed his head in thought, "Would it be safe to assume that Jaune and I will be paying for it?"

"If you wouldn't mind." Sedeqe said, in a voice that implied that she wouldn't mind paying herself.

"We'll do that then. Is that okay with you Jaune?"

Shem must have noticed Jaune's expression growing a bit wary at this plan of action, but he nodded his head all the same, "Yes, I'm okay with that."

"Are you sure? I don't want to impede if it'll put too much of a dent in your savings."

"No, don't worry Shem, it's not that, it's something else that I'm a bit worried about."

As Jaune said this, Pyrrha was reminded of the fact that her aura was still telling her someone was looking at her, and she turned to look behind herself, the feeling lessening greatly when she did this.

"We should get moving then," Sedeqe crossed her arms, "I don't want to freeze out here."

Pyrrha couldn't help feeling as though Sedeqe had been looking at Shem as she said this, but didn't think too deeply about it, for the woman walked forward, Shem looking back towards the boat and waving his hand so the men who had exited the inside of it could see, them seeing the signal and jumping off the side of the boat, landing hard on the wooden walkway of the docks.

Sedeqe wrapped her arm around Pyrrha's, leaning in close to her, her looking at Pyrrha with an unseen smile in reaction to Pyrrha's puzzled look, "It's best if we bunch together like this, isn't it? It's too cold out here not to."

Pyrrha wasn't given the chance to give a rebuttal of any kind, as Sedeqe pulled their locked elbows towards the exits of the docks a bit forcibly.

She mentally questioned her actions, but Pyrrha found no reason to dwell on her thoughts about them, simply looking behind herself to see that Jaune and Shem followed them, not following Sedeqe's example for achieving warmth.

As the two women walked up the stairs, Pyrrha felt herself looking back towards the docks, seeing five men behind Shem and Jaune, following suit, Pyrrha's heels clicking lightly against the stairs as Sedeqe's regular shoes simply made a low thud against them with each step, Pyrrha having a slight amount of difficulty going up the stairs at Sedeqe's pace with the high heels she wore, but managed to get to the top without slipping at all.

As they walked forward, onto the sidewalk, Pyrrha felt her aura once more warn her of someone watching her.

She looked behind herself as she walked, and the feeling lessened just as suddenly as it grew.

She furrowed her eyebrows somewhat at this.

Why were Ruby and Blake so determined to try carrying out a plan as long-winded as this?

"Hey, Pyrrha?" Sedeqe's voice broke the girl from her thoughts, her looking back at the older woman.

"Yes?"

"How did you meet Jaune? I'm a bit curious."

Having realized that Sedeqe wearing a mask made it hard to read her emotions, Pyrrha could only assume she was telling the truth (this wasn't to say she didn't believe Sedeqe, but it just made it feel as though she was hiding something with that mask on).

"I met him the day we were supposed to make our teams." Pyrrha replied.

"How did you get on his team then?"

Pyrrha looked curious now under Sedeqe's knowing gaze.

"How did you know we were on the same team?"

"Jaune told me. He talks a lot about you."

"Really?"

"Well, I assume he's talking about you. He didn't mention you by name until a few days ago. He said something about a red-headed person nailing him to something twice in one day before they became his partner. I had to force it out of him to tell me you were a girl though."

Pyrrha smiled a bit sheepishly at that, "I can't deny that I did do those things."

"Thank you for saving my little brother from certain death. I don't think my team making exam was like that when I was going to school." Sedeqe laughed lightly.

"You're a huntress?" Pyrrha asked without thinking.

"Yup. Though I didn't go to Beacon. I went to an academy in Atlas instead."

Pyrrha looked at Sedeqe in a small bout of surprise then.

Someone trained in the militaristic region that was Atlas who came out with this carefree a personality?

It was almost a foreign idea to the younger girl.

As though reading her thoughts, Sedeqe said in a pouty kind of voice, "Atlas isn't as bad as people make it out to be. It's just not for everyone."

Pyrrha smiled lightly at that, "You could be right."

There it was again, she thought, her gaze turning to look behind herself again, trying to find Blake and Ruby, only for Sedeqe's voice to take her attention again, "Can I ask you something?"

Pyrrha turned to look at her, "Yes, what?"

"Why do you keep looking around like that?"

Pyrrha didn't respond for a moment, then answered honestly, "I keep sensing someone watching me."

She glanced behind herself through the corner of her eye once more, seeing Jaune and Shem behind her, the five men who were with them at the docks out of sight.

It was at this point in time that she noticed something rather peculiar behind the two.

There, walking a fair distance behind Jaune and Shem, was a person with a red hood over their head, a moustache that curled itself up at the ends being on the person's face despite how feminine their facial structure and hair were, wearing what looked like a suit despite the person wearing a hood.

Next to her was a taller woman with black hair wrapped in cloth, as though she were a gypsy, with sunglasses on, wearing a conservative dress as she walked besides the person who wore a business suit and fake moustache.

Turning her head to look fully behind her, to affirm she was in fact seeing what she was seeing, Pyrrha gave an incredulous look, Jaune and Shem looking behind them a moment later to see what she was looking at.

Did they _really_ think they were hiding themselves well, being dressed like that?

For Blake, her appearance was at least altered enough to say she looked like a different person, but for Ruby it was so obvious it almost hurt.

"Hm." Sedeqe looked down despite Pyrrha's look, whispering, "It seems we've been found out already."

Vaguely hearing the woman's words, Pyrrha looked back at Sedeqe, "What?"

The rumble of a motorcycle caught her attention the next moment, and Pyrrha looked back at see a person riding the yellow painted Bumblebee motorcycle, and she mentally sighed as she realized what was happening.

Sedeqe unhooked their elbows in that moment, turning herself away from the path she'd wanted to take, speaking clearly to Pyrrha, in a voice that left no room for argument, "Meet Shem and I at the Messo Merma. Jaune will be able to take you there."

Though Pyrrha looked at the back of Sedeqe's head quizzically, Sedeqe walked to Jaune and Shem, the motorcycle driver having stopped besides them.

The rider pulled her helmet off, shaking her head slightly to loosen her hair, before she spoke, "Hey Jaune, fancy meeting you here!"

Though Shem stopped to glance at the blonde who greeted Jaune, Jaune himself ignored her completely, walking past her as though she'd said absolutely nothing to him.

Yang persisted, driving her motorcycle forward at the walking pace Jaune had, speaking up again, unabated by him ignoring her, "Hey Jaune, what's wrong buddy? I just wanted to remind you of the promise you made me."

"Please do, because I don't remember ever doing that." Jaune closed his eyes as he walked forward, determined not to look at Yang's smiling face, "In fact, I'm pretty sure I never promised you anything."

Sedeqe passed him in that moment, grasping him by his right shoulder, leaning into his ear and whispering, "Let me handle this."

Yang had stopped her motorcycle completely, crossing her arms over the steering knobs, "You said that you'd be treating us to -"

Sedeqe had been walking to Yang's side swiftly, and when Yang realized that Sedeqe was coming too close, it was already too late.

She lifted her hand, concentrating as it readied itself for a karate chop, then slammed itself into Yang's neck, the air whipping at the speed of the chop, the built up aura Sedeqe had flowing through Yang's spinal cord.

The girl's body stiffened greatly, and not wasting a second, Sedeqe walked behind Yang, wrapping her arms around her stomach and lifting her up, Yang's feet dragging themselves on the ground, Sedeqe setting her in a sitting up position against the wall of a building, her uncaring of the looks passerby gave her, the woman walking back to find Shem beside the motorcycle to throw her the helmet Yang had worn, Sedeqe catching it and setting the helmet on Yang's lap, before finally walking to Bumblebee, sitting herself down on the motorcycle as though she'd done nothing wrong, Shem getting on the motorcycle and wrapping his arms around her stomach, Sedeqe giving him a moment to adjust before she drove back onto the road again, the motorcycle speeding away with a roar, until it took a sudden right turn, going past the corner and going out of everyone's sight.

Having just been momentarily paralyzed, Yang could not do anything as her motorcycle was stolen from her.

Ruby and Blake were of no help, even as they kneeled down to see what was wrong with their close friend.

Jaune's reaction was one that had been instilled within him after many times of this sort of thing happening.

He turned away from Yang and walked to Pyrrha, patting her on the shoulder to get her attention before speaking, "We should go."

But even Pyrrha was shocked and appalled at Sedeqe's actions.

"But Jaune, Yang is -"

"She'll be fine. She'll only lie still for another thirty seconds. Let's go while we have the chance." Jaune walked forward as he said this, Pyrrha hearing the calmness in his tone and looking at the form of Yang, remembering being abducted and forcibly changed, before being stalked for the better part of an hour by two of the most poorly disguised people she'd ever seen.

Staring as Yang started to move again, Pyrrha remembered the plan Jaune had described to her, and seeing that three of the most vital parts of the plan were gathered into a pile of evidence, the small idea she had of it being something Jaune made up dissipated completely.

Realizing Jaune telling her they only had a small amount of time to get away, she walked after the blonde, following closely behind him, never turning to look back at Ruby and company.

* * *

The Messo Merma hadn't been very far from where Sedeqe had stolen Yang's motorcycle, it having been a few blocks away from where Pyrrha had left everyone else.

Walking inside the restaurant, Pyrrha said a small thank you to Jaune, who held the door for her as he kept a wary eye out for any followers, and walked inside to find Sedeqe and Shem standing behind a few people, who were trying to get to their tables.

When Pyrrha was about to walk to them, the time came for the duo to plan a table, and the woman behind the podium like structure asked them a very understandable question, "Would you mind taking your masks off?"

"We'd prefer it if we kept them on." Shem replied to the women, "Does it bother you?"

"Not really," the woman was obviously lying about this, "It's just, I'm not sure any other customers feel fine with you keeping them on."

Shem walked around the podium, standing beside the woman, "Would you mind if I showed you something?"

"What?"

"You'll need to crouch down for a moment." Shem crouched down himself as he said this, getting on one knee, "Come on, I can't show it to you if you're standing up."

The woman stared down at the man, who looked like he was trying to propose to her in his position, yet reluctantly crouched down as well, getting on her knees.

The conversation that followed came in the form of whispers, Pyrrha unable to hear any of it, the woman giving a large gasp before she stood up immediately, Shem standing up in front of her, "Do you know why I wanted to keep my mask on now?"

"Y-Yes." The woman was visibly more flustered than before, taking up the needed number of menus before walking towards the table area, "Follow me."

"Thank you." Shem replied, walking behind the woman, Sedeqe having noticed Pyrrha and Jaune and walking beside them.

"Do you often do that?" Pyrrha asked Sedeqe, referring to her stealing Yang's motorcycle.

"No. Only when I need to." Sedeqe lifted up the keys to the motorcycle, twirling them around on her finger as she walked.

"Would you mind it if I were to give that motorcycle back to its owner?" Pyrrha said in a bit of an uneasy tone.

Sedeqe nodded, tossing the keys up for Pyrrha to catch despite them being a foot apart, her catching them easily, "Please do. It'd save me the trouble of trying to give it back."

"Thank you." Pyrrha said in surprise.

As they reached their large booth, Pyrrha questioned the two adults in front of her about the thing that had been bugging her for the past several minutes, "Would you mind me asking why you're wearing those masks?"

The woman who led them to the table walked away, the look she gave to Pyrrha not going unnoticed by the huntress in training.

Sedeqe shared a look with Shem, and they looked back at Pyrrha, Sedeqe crossing her arms, "We'll tell you soon. Let's order first though, yeah?"

Without waiting for an answer, Sedeqe sat down, Shem sitting down next to her, Pyrrha seeing Jaune gesturing for her to sit and taking the unspoken offer, scooting herself to her left to give Jaune room to sit, which he took.

Seeing that both the adults sitting opposite of her were reading through their menus, Pyrrha looked at Jaune, who saw her look and smiled reassuringly at her before shrugging, opening his own menu.

Pyrrha took special notice of the fact that Jaune made a few glances towards the entrance of the restaurant, and as she thought of how persistent the members of team RWBY could be, she decided that, in the event that Yang, Ruby and Blake somehow found their way inside of the restaurant, she would simply bask in this moment, pretending this was still a simple friendly outing, that she hadn't been forcibly kidnapped by her friends and dragged to her dorm room, being changed without a choice in the matter, and stalked for an hour by people who were trying to take advantage of her best friend, with one of the ring leaders of said people getting her motorcycle stolen by a person who did it so smoothly that it looked like something out a video game where a character could steal anyone's vehicle.

Opening her menu, Pyrrha forced a smile onto her face, the strain lessening with each passing second.

Her smile dropped when she noticed Jaune's expression turning sour.

"What's wrong?" Pyrrha asked with a glance to him.

He seemed to hide himself behind his menu, whispering while glancing at her, "They're here."

Pyrrha didn't hearken for further details from him, nor did she need to, her copying Jaune's actions.

While the moment hadn't lasted for very long – barely ten seconds, if that – Pyrrha simply believed that if she and Jaune hid well enough, that the Stalker Three wouldn't notice them.

She held the menu over her face for a moment, staring at it but not reading it, only to mentally sigh.

What was she even hoping for?

Even if the Stalker Three didn't notice her and Jaune at a glance, if the trio was to pass by, Shem and Sedeqe's masks would've gotten the job done, if nothing else would.

As she realized this, Pyrrha lowered her menu, glancing to Jaune, "Jaune?"

"Yes?" Jaune said in small voice, him visibly nervous now.

"Where are they now?" She spoke in a calm voice.

"I don't want to look." Jaune whimpered almost.

"You're the one on that side, so I can't do it myself without making it too obvious." Pyrrha replied in a deadpan tone.

His posture entered a sulk-like state, but Jaune nodded his understanding all the same, him reluctantly leaning his head ever so slightly out into the aisle.

The sight that greeted him made him freeze instantly, and he hid himself behind his menu again.

"Where are they Jaune?" Pyrrha asked this with a tinge of foreboding in her tone.

"Ruby's there. She saw me." Jaune said this in anything but a calm voice.

"Calm down." Pyrrha grasped his wrist supportively, "It'll be okay."

Jaune looked at her, then took a deep breath, nodding a small bit.

"Yeah, you're right." He breathed again, then smiled a bit, "Thank you Pyrrha."

She returned his smile, only for Sedeqe's voice to bring the partners' attention to her.

"What's going on with you two?"

She had laid her menu down a few moments ago, staring at the exchange between Pyrrha and Jaune.

"Did you screw something up again?" Shem had noticed as well, him asking Jaune this with a strong amount of certainty in his gaze.

Jaune's eyes widened, but he recovered from his surprise after a second, speaking a bit louder then.

"No, it's just that there's someone at the entrance - !"

Jaune's eyes widened greatly when he saw Shem immediately lean his head into the aisle, looking down to see Ruby looking back towards them with a hesitance in her gaze.

He gazed at the young girl for a long moment, then glanced at her companions, seeing the conservative gypsy standing next to a blonde woman who spoke to the waitress.

His gaze remained on the blonde woman for a long moment.

Taking in her facial features, his eyes narrowed themselves.

So the girl riding the motorcycle had been Xiao Long after all…

Realizing Yang's identity, it became easy to identify the "he"-girl, if he could even call the girl that, as Ruby Rose.

How convenient, he thought mirthlessly.

With it being clear in his mind that the girls he had spent several days wishing he could have a strong word with, he called out to them, "Xiao Long, Rose!"

Both girls looked up at the sound of their names, and Jaune spoke hesitantly, "Uh… Shem?"

Shem cared nothing for his brother in law's voice, which carried the implication of a warning, and kept speaking when he realized that the girls were in fact the ones he thought them to be, he waved them down in a gesture for them to come to him, "If you're going to eat here, I'll cover the costs. Come over here."

"Shem, what are you doing?"

"I only want to have a talk with the person who we stole a motorcycle from." Shem said calmly, "I might as well compensate her for her damages."

"I doubt we caused any damage." Sedeqe said, looking at Shem, "We only drove half a block."

"Even so." Shem watched as Yang, Ruby and the unnamed girl who accompanied them walked to the booth's side, looking up at them and holding his menu out for them, "You might want to order before our waitress comes."

They looked at this display of hospitality with a sort of confusion that festered in their expressions.

"Take it," Shem said, reaching it towards Yang, "I only like to eat a few things from this marine restaurant anyways."

Yang took the menu with a large deal of surprise, but nodded silently after a moment and taking it.

Sensing her hesitance, Shem rested his head on his fist, eyes looking up at Yang, "Would you mind sitting? I'd rather avoid attracting unnecessary attention."

Yang looked down at the large amount of emptiness the seats held, then sat down somewhat awkwardly next to Shem.

The lack of her extroverted mannerisms did not go unnoticed by Pyrrha, who scooted herself further down at Shem's behest, Jaune following suit, yet this was something she understood.

Even Pyrrha wouldn't act herself when a person who had stolen her motorcycle had offered to pay for a meal at a restaurant less than ten minutes later.

When Ruby and Blake sat themselves beside Jaune and Yang respectively, Shem gestured for them to choose their food of choice, their waiter arriving and taking everyone's orders for food.

After this had happened, Sedeqe leaned over the table to look at Yang, "Sorry about paralyzing you."

"It's… okay." Yang said in an unconvincing tone.

"May I ask you a question?"

Yang looked at Sedeqe for a moment, but nodded, "Sure, ask away."

"You wouldn't be Taiyang's daughter, would you?"

Yang blinked slightly, but looked a bit warily at Sedeqe, "Yes, how do you know?"

"No need to go into details about it. I'm just asking out of curiosity." Sedeqe looked at Ruby then, staring a long time at the girl, who awkwardly stared back.

It was hard to discern who looked more ridiculous: Ruby, with her cartoonish moustache, or Sedeqe, with her strange mask.

"I'm actually happy that I was able to get the chance to speak with you two." Shem said, in a voice more calm than enthusiastic, much less happy.

"Why is that?" Ruby asked, breaking eye contact with Sedeqe.

"I can finally confront about the trouble you've been causing me at work." Shem said, looking at Ruby.

"Hm?" She tilted her head in confusion, "How did we do that?"

"By leaving a path of destruction wherever you go once a month." Shem replied, his eyes narrowing, "The Council hasn't been happy about that, and neither have I."

"The Council?" Pyrrha asked, her confusion growing.

"Oh," Shem spoke with a note of realization, then took up the menus at the table, him reaching over Yang and building a type of wall with them, everyone staring curiously at his actions.

When his labor was finished, Shem looked at Yang, "It'd probably be easier to understand if I told you who I was."

Leaning forward, Shem hid himself behind his makeshift menu fort, grasping his mask and pulling it off for the members of the table to see.

All people present with the exception of Jaune, Sedeqe and Blake gasped, with the faunus looking with a strongly taken aback expression despite this.

Pyrrha stared for a long moment at Shem's sweaty face, eyes wide and mouth agape.

"You mean… you're _that_ Shem?" Pyrrha asked incredulously.

The man sitting directly opposite of her in her booth was a man she immediately recognized.

Shem's last name was Hemispha, she realized.

Sitting before was Shem Hemispha, a member of the ruling council of the Kingdom of Vale.

One of the most powerful political figures in all of the nation…

… was sitting in a restaurant booth, wearing a weird mask.

* * *

 **A/N: Kudos to anyone who manages to figure out what the restaurant "Messo Merma" is a reference to. I put only a few hints as to what it alludes to in this chapter.**

 **Also, if you haven't figured it out, Shem is based off of the first/second son of Noah in Christian mythology, with Sedeqe herself being a reference to the mythical Shem's wife, who's name was "Sedeqetelebab", me shortening her name to simply be "Sedeqe".**

 **Do you want to know more about this person? I'll assume you say yes, though I have fair reason to believe the answer is no.**

 **Sedeqe's personality is based heavily off of Koko Hekmatyar, from the anime " _Jormungand_ ".**

 **Don't know who Koko is? Then you're S.O.L.**

 **Don't know what S.O.L. stands for? Then you're even more S.O.L.**


End file.
